New Brisbane coach Michael Valkanis keen to return Roar to A-League summit

Brisbane new coach Michael Valkanis intent on lifting the struggling Roar out of the A-League doldrums.

New Brisbane Roar coach Michael Valkanis will relish the challenge of restoring the fallen giants to their former glory, saying it had been “sad’ to see the demise of the three-time A-League champions.

Once the toast of Australian football in playing a brand of football never previously seen in the A-League and winning titles, the Roar have almost become irrelevant.

Poor results over the past two seasons has finally led to the sacking of coach Ruben Zadkovich, with former Adelaide United captain and ex-Socceroos defender Valkanis given the task of lifting Brisbane out of the doldrums.

News Corp Australia reported last month that 50-year-old Valkanis was set to become the Roar’s new coach, with the club confirming on Tuesday the departure of Zadkovich and his assistant Chris Coyne after Brisbane won just five of its 26 games this season to only finish above cellar dwellers Perth Glory.

The Roar’s woeful form also led to a further drop in attendances, with the club’s average home crowd at Suncorp Stadium falling to 5463.

New Brisbane Roar coach Michael Valkanis wants to restore the club to its former glory. Picture: George Salpigtidis

“We’ve got to take certain steps and need to recreate what once upon a time existed here,” Valkanis told News Corp on Tuesday.

“Playing for Adelaide United and coming here, it was pretty special because it felt like a European game, and having been following the A-League lately, I was just sad to see how Suncorp Stadium was just empty. That can’t be so.

“We need to create an environment that’s going to allow the people to do their best work in, become better players, become better people and all have one shared vision of where we want to take this club.

“We need an identity that the Roar previously had in terms of playing an entertaining brand of football that’s going to excite people, and it’s very important that we reconnect with the community, bring people back to Suncorp Stadium, make that place exciting and create not only an intensity through the way we play, but having that intensity that the supporters brought as well.

“That’s the challenge, and it’s a challenge that we can meet and be able to turn things around.”

Valkanis – whose most recent coaching job with Turkish team Adana Demirspor lasted less than three months before he parted ways with the club in September last year – has spent the best part of the past eight years in Europe after having cut his coaching teeth in the A-League as a caretaker boss of Adelaide United and Melbourne City.

Ruben Zadkovich has departed Brisbane Roar. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

He had head coaching roles with Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel) and Eupen (Belgium) and was an assistant to ex-Melbourne City coach John van‘t Schip at Dutch clubs PEC Zwolle and Ajax, and the Greek national team.

“The one thing I’ve leant in Europe is the coaches and the staff work bloody hard, and enough is enough,” said Valkanis, whose has brought with him to Brisbane a Spanish assistant coach, Borja Lema, and a Greek analyst, Nektarios Grija.

“This coaching group will outwork anyone. The values I believe in, we live by, and the players will feel it.”

Valkanis and his staff will need to hit the ground running, with the Roar in action next Wednesday night in an Australia Cup playoff against Wellington Phoenix in Darwin.

“This game is about next season and is of super importance,” Valkanis said

“We have to finish off this season on a good note and show our intent for what we’re going to try to create next season.”

Originally published as New Brisbane coach Michael Valkanis keen to return Roar to A-League summit